There are two key human rights values in this confrontation:<\/p>\n
freedom of expression<\/em>–basic, but not the only value in the world;<\/p>\n freedom from insult and respect for the sacred<\/em>–basic, but not alone.<\/p>\n Conflicts between two values generally have five outcomes:<\/p>\n [1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The freedom of expression prevails<\/em> over freedom from insult-hurt-harm and respect for what is sacred to others: this happens right now<\/em>; the US-made anti-Islamic YouTube video, and the Charlie Hebdo<\/em> article.<\/p>\n Comment<\/em>: Unacceptable; but does not justify violence to humans and property.\u00a0 Nonviolent reactions against governments protecting individuals against libel, and Judaism-Christianity but not Islam, with forms of boycott till they change, and international conferences, are called for.\u00a0 The problem is not what governments do, but what they have not<\/em> done; not acts of commission, but their acts of omission.<\/p>\n [2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The freedom from insult and respect for the sacred prevails<\/em>, with silence whenever a religion is invoked, like by Islamic dictatorships.<\/p>\n Comment<\/em>: Unacceptable; making it possible to hide the political under a cloak of the sacred as islamophobia, as being “anti-Islam”.<\/p>\n [3]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Neither<\/em><\/strong> expression, nor<\/strong> respect<\/em>, but also non-verbal violence, like prejudice (attitudinal) and discrimination (behavioral).<\/p>\n Comment<\/em>: Unacceptable; we need freedom of expression for that!<\/p>\n [4]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Compromise: moderate freedom of expression for moderate insults<\/em>.<\/p>\n Comment<\/em>: No solution to anything, but very frequently found.<\/p>\n [5]\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Both<\/em><\/strong> freedom of expression and<\/strong> respect for the sacred<\/em>.\u00a0 But how?<\/p>\n Comment<\/em>: By drawing a line between the secular-political and the sacred-religious (like between the public and the private person); with freedom of expression for the former, and respect for the latter.\u00a0 Neither trampling on the sacred nor hiding the political from scrutiny, essential for the rule of law, human rights and democracy.\u00a0 The video combines insult-hurt-harm with no hidden politics.\u00a0 Unacceptable.<\/p>\n _____________________<\/p>\n Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, is rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU<\/a>. He is author of over 150 books on peace and related issues, including \u2018<\/em>50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives,\u2019 published by the TRANSCEND University Press-TUP<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgment and link to the source, TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS, is included. Thank you.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are two key human rights values in this confrontation:
\nfreedom of expression–basic, but not the only value in the world;
\nfreedom from insult and respect for the sacred–basic, but not alone.
\nConflicts between two values generally have five outcomes:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}